Benefits of Green Tea

It has been recommended that green tea promotes weight loss. How does this work? And how switching from green tea from black tea is beneficial.

Green tea consists of polyphenols such as flavanol monomers or catechins which are antioxidants, anti-cancer, antiviral and anti-plaque forming properties, as well as contributing to reducing blood pressure and controlling blood sugar.Green tea is a “may reduce LDL oxidation and the formation of oxidized DNA metabolites, thus contributing to lower risks of CVD and cancer” (St-Onge 2005) due to the fact that it’s a powerful antioxidant. It is non-oxidised where as black and oolong tea are quite heavily oxidized (St-Onge 2005). Catechins also are said to inhibit fat accumulation, stimulate thermogenesis and reduce the total cholesterol concentration. Green tea is also suggested to decrease body weight and waist circumference. Green tea is a “powerful antioxidants that may reduce LDL oxidation and the formation of oxidized DNA metabolites, thus contributing to lower risks of CVD and cancer” (St-Onge 2005).

Some studies have shown the long term, participants in the study who were on a diet plan and consumed green tea on a daily basis actually had a greater reduction in body fat percentage, waist/circumference ratio, skin folds, subcutaneous total and fat area when compared with those participants on a diet plan and oolong tea.  The studies also proved that green tea encourages energy expenditure and reduced total body fat. Another major contributing factor to a reduction in body fat was the ability of the catechins to prevent the formation of oxidised low density lipoprotein lipids, to also aid in reducing the risk for atherosclerosis.

Several other studies have concluded that green tea increased fat oxidation and increased thermogenesis concluding that green tea can influence body composition & weight. It was also discovered that it was not caffeine alone that stimulated thermogenesis but the green tea extract it self was stimulating thermogenesis in an in vitro experiment.

From these studies it is believe that you will benefit greatly from switching his black tea every day to green tea because of its fat oxidising properties and stimulation of thermogenesis, to aid weight loss.  

It is recommended you have 2 – 4 cups of loose leaf green tea away from food in order to receive the benefits.

References

Nagao, T, Komine, Y,Soga, S, Meguro, S, Hase, T, Tanaka, Y & Tokimitsu, I 2005, Ingestion of a tea rich in catechins leads to a reduction in body fat and malondialdehyde-modified LDL in men, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 81, pp.122-129.

St-Onge, M 2005, Dietary fats, teas, dairy, and nuts: potential functional foods for weight control, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 81, no. 1, pp 7-15.